How to Make a Wooden Sword Look Like a Real One

Wouldn't you like to make a wooden sword look like it is made with steel?
This tutorial explain how to paint a wooden sword and make it have a reallistic effect.

Step 1: Materials and Sword

This is the list of thing you would need:

- The sword (in this case it's made of wood, but can be of another material).
- A can of silver Spray Paint
- Old brushes (preferably not thick ones).
- 1 bottle of black acrylic paint
- 1 bottle of silver acrylic paint
- Newspapers

Optional:
- Transparent enamel

Step 2: Let's Get Started!

Paint the sword with the spray paint. This will be the basis to start giving it the effects.
When finished, let dry.

Step 3: Mix the Paint

When it is dry, then you have to mix some black acrylic paint with a bit of the silver one for a dark silver tone.

Step 4: Grab Paint

Having the mix, grab some mixed paint with the brush (the brush must be dry) and you take away the excess of paint until it is too little on the brush.

Step 5: Paint

After making sure the piece is dry, you have to see what areas are deeper or which areas in a metal sword look darker. This is where you start to apply brushstrokes as follows:

Fig.1: First press the brush with paint in the darkest place.
Fig.2: Drag the brush dropping a bit, from the darkest places to where it must look brighter.

This begins to look more real because of the effects of use. (Fig. 3)

* If you have holes or deeper areas, it is the same but from the inside out.

Step 6: Sharp

After letting it dry for a while, to make it look sharp, take silver acrylic paint with a clean brush and begin to paint a line following the path that is sharp. This is done in all places where it has edges.

Step 7: The Transparent Enamel

Finally, let it dry completely and as an optional step you can apply the transparent enamel to the piece and let it dry to protect the paint and prevent it from falling.

This step is optional but highly recommended so the piece can look better for a longer time.